Shah praises Modi, questions leaders of some Southern parties 

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah addresses an ‘Indian Renaissance: The Modi Decade’ book launch event, in New Delhi on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday (January 30, 2025) questioned leaders of some regional parties in the South regarding their intention to divide the country.

“Leaders of some regional parties in the South allege that injustices are being done to the Southern States, demanding a separate country. I want to ask them — for how long you will divide the country? already one-third of the country was divided during your time,” Mr. Shah said at the launch of the book Indian Renaissance: The Modi Decade.

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Mr. Shah compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mahatma Gandhi, stating that after Gandhiji, Mr. Modi was the only leader to have prioritised cleanliness on a national scale, ensuring the construction of toilets for 13 crore households. He said world leaders started respecting Gandhiji only in the past 10 years.

He emphasised that whenever India’s history was rewritten, even Mr. Modi’s staunch critics would acknowledge these 10 years in golden letters.

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Mr. Shah said that in 2014, India entered a new era, receiving a stable government after three decades, leading to success in every part of the country. He mentioned that this transformation had been interpreted in various ways, with a foreign newspaper even writing that while India attained Independence on August 15, 1947, it was under Mr. Modi’s leadership in 2014 that the country truly gained freedom from colonial influences.